Leviticus 26:21-22—“‘21 Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins. 22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate.’” If it’s not enough to take away your crops, then God will send wild beasts to kill your children, your livestock, your flocks and herds—oh, and you children, too. And you would think that would be enough to make the people turn back to God. Again, you would be wrong.
Leviticus 26:23-26—“‘23 And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me, 24 then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant; when you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.’” If it’s not enough that God delivers you to plunderers, makes you scared of your own shadow, wipes out your crops, destroys your children and your flocks and herds by wild beasts—then He will send disease among you, turn you over to your enemies, and cut off your food. You will be so hungry that you could eat an entire loaf of bread—and still be starving. And notice what He says in verse 25. “I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant.” This goes back to Exodus 23:20-33, where He promises to send the Angel before them. He promises that the Angel will scatter their enemies so they may dwell in peace. But he also promises that if they sin, that Angel will turn and instead of fighting against their enemy, that Angel will fight against Israel. Do you think it’s a good idea to be on the bad side of an angel God sends to execute His justice? And you would think that would be enough to make the people turn back to God. And you would be wrong.
Leviticus 26:27-39—“‘27 And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, 28 then I also will walk contrary to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you. 31 I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. 32 I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. 34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest—for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it. 36 And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee; they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; also in their fathers' iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.’”
Not only will God cut off their food; not only will the wild beasts carry off their children—but the people themselves will cut up their children and eat them. The act of cannibalism marked two of the darkest hours in the history of the nation Israel. In 2nd Kings 6:24-29— 24 And it happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. 25 And there was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed they besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver. 26 Then, as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king!" 27 And he said, "If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?" 28 Then the king said to her, "What is troubling you?" And she answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' 29 So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, 'Give your son, that we may eat him'; but she has hidden her son." Women were baking, broiling, and boiling their children in order to eat. This because God promised this to the people if they repeatedly disobeyed Him. Does God keep His promises? Whether He promises good or bad, will He not deliver. When people talk about the faithfulness of God in keeping His promises, that faithfulness is s two-way street. He promises good, and He will make good on those promises. But He also promises calamity, and He will fulfill that promise as well.
There is another recorded episode of cannibalism in Israel, this time from the pen of Josephus. This story comes from the absolute darkest hour in the history of the city Jerusalem—its siege and fall at the hands of Titus in 70 AD. The tragedy that overtook the city was the result of the murder of the Son of God, and the destruction of all those things used by men to continue in the works of the Law that could save no man. By the time that day had come, the temple was no more about the worship of God, but rather the buying and selling of the priestly office, for which the entire city paid dearly. But, this was the warning that God Himself had given some 1500 years prior, and it was now coming to pass, and the city would fall in one of the most horrific ways imaginable (if one could even imagine such an abominable end to a people). Here is what the historian Josephus says of the fulfillment of the promise of God from Leviticus—
“There was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan, her name was Mary…what food she had contrived to save, had been carried off by the rapacious guards, who came every day running into her house for that purpose…if she found any food, she perceived her labors were for others, and not for herself; and it was now become impossible for her any way to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself…She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, ‘O thou miserable infant! For whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, and this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives, we must be slaves. This famine also will destroy us, even before that slavery comes upon us. Yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other. Come on; be thou my food, and be thou a fury to these seditious varlets, and a by-word to the world, which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews.’ As soon as she had said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him, and ate the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed. Upon this the seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that she had saved a very fine portion of it for them, and uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight, when she said to them, ‘This is mine own son, and what hath been done was mine own doing! Come, eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself! Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved for me also.’ After which those men went out trembling, being never so much affrighted at anything as they were at this, and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother.”
Why do people never learn? Why did generation after generation of those who had the Sacred Scriptures, who studied them and memorized them, never learn, but rather drift further and further away from the God of which they spoke? Because they were human. And we foolish humans are only concerned with one thing—our own wants. So we pretend that the warnings of God do not apply to us. If we were to go back to the passage in Judges, after the people were greatly distressed about God punishing them for bowing down to the Ba’als and Ashtoreths, what does God do? He tells them, “OK, that was your trial. You found out that what I said would come to pass. So, I’ll give you men who will deliver you from the hands of your enemies.” And so, in Judges 2:16, God does just that, and they are once again out from under the rule of the pagans. But the story doesn't end there. Guess what the people do immediately? Judges 2:16-17—16 The LORD raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. For those of you who still think that the human heart is “basically good”, and actually wants to follow God—here’s your clue that you're wrong. The people heard the commands of YHVH from their fathers. They heard that if they disobeyed the LORD He would punish them and sell them into the hands of their enemies. They test Him, He does what He promised, they become greatly distressed, God gives them men to deliver them from the enemies hand—and they go and do the very thing for which God delivered them into the hands of their enemies!! Are you serious!! But such is the human heart. No matter how many times were are corrected and chastised, we keep going back and doing that very thing we were punished for—not thinking we will be punished for it again. Alexander MacLaren—
“The Law stringently bridled passions which the hideous worship of the Canaanites stimulated. No wonder that, when the first generation of the conquerors had passed away, their successors lapsed into the universal polytheism, with its attendant idolatry and immorality. Instead of thinking of the Israelites as monsters of ingratitude and backsliding, we come nearer the truth, and make a better use of the history, when we see in it a mirror which shows us our own image. The strong earthward pull is ever acting on us, and, unless God hold us up, we too shall slide downwards. ‘Hath a nation changed their gods, which yet are no gods? But My people hath changed their glory for that which doth not profit.’ Idolatry and worldliness are persistent; for they are natural. Firm adherence to God is less common, because it goes against the strong forces, within and without, which bind us to earth.”
Coming back to Leviticus, we find, once again, that single word that changes the course of rivers of words.
BUT.
Leviticus 26:40-46—“‘40 But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me, 41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land. 43 The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; they will accept their guilt, because they despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. 45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.’” 46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the LORD made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
Repentance. We are human. We are going to mess up. God knows that. He will not excuse our sins, but if we go to Him in repentance, if we confess that we have messed up—and perhaps “messed up” is too mild of a term, we have rather rebelled against the authority and majesty of God—if we confess our sins, He will show us mercy and blot out those sins. He even says so. 1st John 1:9—If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we must go to God daily to receive that forgiveness, that “washing” of our feet as Christ called it. John 13:10—"He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean." Back in Exodus, when we covered the consecrating and regulations concerning Aaron and his sons’ service in the tabernacle, we talked about the bronze laver where they were to wash their feet before they entered the sanctuary. They did not need to bathe themselves all over again—they simply needed to wash the dirt and grime of the world from their feet. An illustration of us as Christians, who have been bathed by Christ—but we too must have our feet cleansed and washed daily from the muck of the world which clings to us.
One last note—see in verses 44-45, where God promises that He will not completely abandon the people of Israel? He made a promise to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. He made a covenant with them, and just because their sons and daughters broke that covenant, God will keep up His end. Yet there are some who will say, “God is done with Israel.” And these people do not have a clue about what they are saying. If they read and understood the words of Paul, they would not make such wild claims. Romans 11:1-5—1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, “3 LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life?” 4 But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. To say that God is done with Israel is to make Paul a liar. There will always be a remnant of the Jews on the earth. This is how William Sanday, in the International Critical Commentary, explains this passage in Romans, verse-by-verse, under the heading, “The Rejection of Israel Not Complete”—
“1 It is through their own fault that Israel has rejected a salvation which was fully and freely offered. Now what does this imply? Does it mean that God has rejected His chosen people? Heaven forbid that I should say this! I who like them am an Israelite, an Israelite by birth and not a proselyte, a lineal descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe that with Judah formed the restored Israel after the exile.
2 No, God has not rejected His people. He chose them for His own before all time and nothing can make Him change His purpose. If you say He has rejected them, it only shows that you have not clearly grasped the teaching of Scripture concerning the Remnant. Elijah on Mt. Horeb brought just such an accusation against his countrymen.
3 He complained that they had forsaken the covenant, that they had overthrown God’s altars, that they had slain His Prophets; just as the Jews at the present day have slain the Messiah and persecuted His messengers. Elijah only was left, and his life they sought. The whole people, God’s chosen people, had been rejected.
4 So he thought; but the Divine response came to him, that there were seven thousand men left in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal. There was a kernel of the nation that remained loyal.
5 Exactly the same circumstances exist now as then. Now as then the mass of the people are unfaithful, but there is a remnant of loyal adherents to the Divine message—a remnant, be it remembered, chosen by God by an act of free favour.”
Even when we are faithless, God is faithful. He will not completely cast His people away, but will chasten us, scourge us, and call us back to Himself when we stray. And if we are truly His people, we will return to Him. We will be His people, and He will be our God.
Father, may we never forget that You alone are God, and may we never go after idols of wood, silver and gold. May we always remember that if we do this, and You will it to happen, you can cause unthinkable tragedies to befall us. May we always remember that when we are faithless, You are ever faithful and will show us mercy when we repent of our sins and cry out to You for mercy.
